Charles Lohn was a thief and a liar.
More than two years ago, the youth pastor at Shelbyville Mills Baptist Church was convicted of embezzling more than $75,000 from church funds over a three-year period. The case was widely reported in local and national media.

Lohn served a nine-month sentence, three months of house arrest and is now completing the remainder of a 10-year probation.

Restoration

This morning, he will stand before the congregation of the church he stole from, be transparent about his actions and motives, and ask for forgiveness from those he hurt directly. He will then be reinstated to membership in the church he's been associated with for a dozen years.

His relationship with senior pastor Jonathan Sims goes back much further than that.

"Charles and I have been together for 19 years," Sims said in an interview this week.

Sims met Lohn, then a young man just out of high school, while still in seminary. Lohn attended the first church Sims pastored in Texas, then followed him to a church in Talladega, Ala., where he would serve on the staff for six years. When Sims moved to Shelbyville, Lohn followed.

Sims had watched the young man grow up, had been a friend and counselor, had christened each of the four children born to Charles and Misty Lohn.

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